


friends in low places

by faithzephyr



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Identity Reveal, dash pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-21
Updated: 2018-03-21
Packaged: 2019-04-06 06:13:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14050692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/faithzephyr/pseuds/faithzephyr
Summary: dash baxter finds amity park's local hero bleeding out in an alley, and then he uncovers something much, much bigger.*****this was inspired by nicodrawings lovely piece of art and idea for an au. i posted this on my tumblr, but here it is anyway





	friends in low places

**Author's Note:**

> here's the post that inspired this whole thing:
> 
> http://nicodrawings.tumblr.com/post/168177802595/i-have-an-au-idea-in-my-head-for-danny-phantom
> 
> go give all of your love to this artist, because they really are spectacular!

Dark had fallen long before Dash left football practice, leaving him cursing the rotation of the earth for continuing as it always had. He was guaranteed a harsh scolding and maybe a couple of punches, depending on how deep his dad was into his whiskey. Nothing too bad though. Not while the season was still going on. He passed by another alley, pulling his letter jacket tighter around him as a cold wind blew. Something flashed as he walked by and Dash slowed his pace. At first glance it was barely noticeable, but the longer Dash looked, the more obvious it became. Splattered throughout the small space were puddles of a glowing green substance. Dash gulped and sent out a prayer before kneeling beside the nearest puddle. He examined the puddle, hesitation deep in his bones and everything in his body screaming at him to run as far away as he could, as fast as his feet would take him.

A strangled scream echoed down the alley, echoing off the narrow walls before falling on Dash’s ears. He jumped at the sound, eyes scanning the alley, muscles tensed to run in the opposite direction. Better the devil he knew than some creature in the back of a shady alley that left a trail of what Dash was now sure was glowing green blood. Better to take his chances with a drunken father and an absent mother than whatever was making that painfully human wail. And Dash turned to leave, he really did. He made it all the way around the corner before another scream, quieter than the last left the alley, and Dash knew he couldn’t just leave it there to bleed and hurt and die. (Could ghosts even die? Because that’s what he was sure it was, and the green stuff must be ectoplasm. But did it matter if it could die? It still hurt, that much was obvious.) So Dash did something stupid. He turned around and he went further into the dark, his only light coming from the ectoplasm, until he stood before a pile of garbage. His heart pounded in his throat as he looked over the source of the sound.

“Phantom?” There lying beside Dash’s feet, was the local menace/hero, a gaping wound in his side gushing ectoplasm. Phantom weakly lifted his head, the single movement looking like it took all of his energy and then some. Recognition lit up his eyes, and if the situation was different, Dash might have felt pride at his hero knowing his face.

“Dash?” Phantom whispered, voice hoarse and nearly silent. Or, that’s what Dash assumed he said, because it came out more like “ass” than anything else. Dash nodded, shock painted across his face as he took in the ghost boy’s injuries. The full body suit was torn in more than one area, each one accompanied by its own little cut. There was ectoplasm soaking his once pristine gloves, and even more run throughout his hair, and all-in-all, he looked like he’d just been through a rough round of double dare.

Dash worried his lip and asked the question he already knew the answer to. “Are you okay?” He wasn’t, of course he wasn’t. That was obvious to anyone with eyes. Dash didn’t wait for a reply that wouldn’t, couldn’t, come. He scooped Phantom up into his arms, eliciting another shriek from the ghost boy. Dash looked down at him, so small and fragile in his arms, and his determination strengthened. Phantom had done so much for Amity Park, for Dash, and this was the least he could do for Phantom. “I have some bandages and shit at home. I can help you.” Realization hit Dash. “Would- would bandages even help you? Since you’re a ghost and all?”

Another scream tore through the autumn air as Phantom nodded his head. Dash nodded back dumbly as muscle memory took over and he flat out ran towards his house. The trip passed in a blur, and Dash barely remembered reaching his house until he was fumbling with his keys and jamming them into the lock. They got lucky. Dash’s dad was passed out on his old, worn out recliner, beer bottles scattered across the floor. Dash didn’t have a contingency plan for his father, he was too focused on Phantom. He snuck towards his room, hero still sat bridal style in his arms. A bright ring of light encircled Phantoms waist and Dash half expected a ghost to come bursting through a wall, raving on about revenge against the ghost-boy. Instead, something even more insane happened. The ring broke into two and traveled up Phantoms torso and down his legs until it popped out of existence, leaving a still bleeding Danny Fenton in Dash’s arms.

It took all of Dash’s willpower not to scream like a tea kettle, but he managed. His eyes widened and he was probably white as a sheet, but none of that was important when he’d just found out his favorite punching bag was secretly dead. He rushed to his room and all but slammed the door behind him. The other boy was asleep in Dash’s arms, and didn’t even stir at the jarring noise. Setting Phantom- Fenton- whoever, down on his mattress, Dash retrieved his first aid kit from under his bed and set to work. He had to sacrifice Danny’s shirt if he wanted to actually treat the wounds, which was an obvious choice. Binding the wounds across Fenton’s chest, starting with the ugliest, largest, and bloodiest one, took time, but Dash would get it done. A sick feeling curled in his gut at the thought of what would have happened if he had turned and ran not twenty minutes ago. Amity Park would have been down one ghost hero and one human student, and it would’ve been Dash’s fault, even if he didn’t know it. Eventually his thoughts turned from what could have happened to what actually did happen. Finding your classmate on the brink of death in an alley wasn’t normal. Finding your classmate already dead, or halfway there at least, was even stranger, especially when that classmate was also the ghost hero who had been protecting your town for years. A groan shook Dash from his thoughts abruptly as Fenton pushed himself up, wincing at the strain on his body. He looked around the room blearily, snapping to attention at the sight of Dash sat awkwardly beside him. His eyes narrowed with distrust, which, if Dash was being honest, hurt a bit. But it was understandable, he supposed. After all, waking up in the bedroom of the person who had tormented you for years with severe injuries would be a cause for suspicion.

“What’s going on?” And, yep. That was definitely distrust, but Dash would deal with that later. Right now he just had to make sure Fenton was alright.

“Are you alright? I wrapped the cuts as best as I could but I’m not sure I got them all.” Danny looked down at his bare chest, suddenly noticing the bandages wrapped across him. His eyes flew up to meet Dash’s, alarm clear on his face. “What happened to you, Danny?”

Dash kept his voice low, partly to calm Danny, partly to make sure his father didn’t find them. Danny looked away, excuse ready on his lips. “I… was mugged,” he said. “I was walking home and this dude jumped out from the alley and demanded I give him my money. I told him I didn’t have any, so he pulled a knife on me.” Danny nodded, as if to cement his story.

Dash narrowed his eyes, because jesus, was that the best he could come up with? Even if he had found Fenton, not Phantom, in that alley, a mugger? A ghost would’ve been more believable with Amity’s human-to-spectre crime rates. “Danny, I know you’re Phantom, I know that mugger story is complete bullshit, and I want to know what really happened.”

Danny’s face was almost comedic, his eyes as wide as platters and jaw practically on the ground, but the fear on his face was anything but. It made sense. His biggest secret had just been revealed to somebody who had hated him for as long as they had known each other. He took in a shaky breath. Exhaled. Inhaled. Exhaled. Repeat. Finally, he calmed down enough to speak.

“It was just a ghost attack I took a little too hard. I’ll be fine. What’s really important is that you know.” There was desperation in his voice, and it tore Dash up, because in the years that he had been admittedly cruel to Danny, he had never heard anything close to this. “You can’t tell anybody! My parents would kill me, the Guys in White would dissect me, I’d never see the sun again!” His head dropped and Dash and Danny sat in silence for a moment.

Dash couldn’t tell anyone. Obviously. He had known that when Phantom became Fenton became Danny. But he couldn’t just sit on the sidelines as Danny was hunted down by ghosts, the government, and even his own parents. “I won’t.” Danny looked up at Dash’s admission. “Tell anybody, I mean.” Relief flooded Danny’s face and his entire body relaxed. “But I want to help.”

Danny looked him up and down, until deeming him sincere. “You can help by staying out of it and staying safe.” Danny dug through the deep pockets of his pants and pulled out a gun labelled the ‘Fenton Anti-Ghost Blaster’. Danny pushed it into Dash’s hands. “So you can protect yourself.” He explained.

A smile bloomed on Dash’s face at that and he wrapped his hands around it. “For protection.” The moment was an understanding, a truce. The end of one era and the beginning of the new one. And though the world kept on spinning, never slowing, the moment seemed to last an eternity to the two boys.

It was broken, however, by a wisp of air escaping Danny’s mouth. Dash’s brow furrowed in confusion. It had been a warm November, there was no reason Danny should be seeing his breath. “Ghost sense.” Danny explained. He stood, wincing at the movement, but standing all the same. “I have to go.” The rings circled around Danny, and suddenly he was Phantom. With one last glance towards Dash, and a warning of “stay safe”, he phased through the wall to find the ghostly enemy.

Dash looked down at the blaster still in his grip and back up to where Danny had been. He had some ghost ass to kick.


End file.
